Once you have read Philippa Snow’s It’s Terrible the Things I Have to Do to Be Me, it’s impossible not to see the markers of femininity and fame all around. Whether it’s Sydney Sweeney producing a limited edition soap made from her bath water, or reality TV star Erika Jayne singing “It’s expensive to be me” on the Mighty Hoopla stage.
In Snow’s latest work of nonfiction each chapter compares the lives of two famous women, from blonde bombshells Marilyn Monroe and Anna Nicole Smith to soul singers Amy Winehouse and Billie Holiday.
Some connections have been made before and even encouraged by the stars themselves, as is the case with Smith and her Hollywood inspiration. But others, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Lindsay Lohan, few would think to compare
Snow does not cast moral judgement on these women, she saves that for those who abused them, controlled them and the paparazzi and government forces that hunted them down. But this book isn’t about the morality of fame, and Snow refuses to get into the weeds of each star’s actions, as online discourse and tabloids have always done.
Snow’s focus as an art critic is on the image these stars curated, exploring whether they managed to retain something of their identity for themselves.
Her comparisons flow so easily that Snow’s criticism has a spiritual majesty. What could be seen as coincidence appears instead as the guiding hand of fate when in most cases it is the patriarchal society’s hand attempting to contain and control the celebrities society loves to hate.
